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PRESS STATEMENT: Government must reverse threat to impose juniors deal

PRESS STATEMENT: Government must reverse threat to impose juniors deal

Senior doctors’ union the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association warned today that government plans to impose the new junior doctors’ will cause "needless damage” as it added to growing calls for an inquiry into the deal.

The HCSA, the only TUC-affiliated professional association and trade union dedicated solely to hospital doctors, backed calls for a Commons Health Select Committee probe into the contract “with the goal of resolving this troubling period for our NHS.”

HCSA President Professor John Schofield warned: “The government may hope to ride out this resistance until it can impose the new junior doctors’ contract, but doing so risks causing needless damage to industrial relations and morale within the NHS.

“Senior hospital doctors, who have risen to the challenge of providing safe NHS care to cover for striking junior colleagues over the past 48 hours, have warned all along that negotiation not imposition is the only option.

“The alternative will land a major blow to staff morale and threaten to fuel an exodus of essential clinical staff.

“Clarity rather than posturing is now the order of the day, and an independent inquiry has the potential to help secure a proper resolution that defuses rather than inflames this crisis.

“The Hospital Consultants & Specialists Association therefore echoes calls for a Commons Health Select Committee inquiry into the junior doctors’ contract with the goal of resolving this troubling period for our NHS."